Heavy rains in Delhi, adjoining areas cause traffic snarls and waterlogging

Heavy rains lashed Delhi and parts of Uttar Pradesh bordering it on Wednesday (August 19) morning, resulting in water-logging and traffic snarls in some areas.

The Delhi traffic police said waterlogging has been reported at BRT near Central school (both carriageway), under Badarpur and Sarita Vihar flyovers (both carriageway), Dhaula Kuan towards AIIMS carriageway under Moti Bagh Flyover and other places.

One of its tweets said traffic is heavy “in the carriageway from Lajwanti flyover towards Dhaula Kuan due to breakdown of a cluster bus near Lajwanti flyover.” It asked motorists heading towards Dhaula Kuan to take the Mayapuri Chowk route.

Ghaziabad and Noida in Uttar Pradesh adjoining Delhi also received heavy rains, bringing down the temperature.

Gurugram in Haryana, again close to Delhi, also received heavy showers, resulting in flooding and traffic jam in some areas.

In a tweet on around 1 pm on Wednesday afternoon, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said most parts in Delhi, Noida and Gurugram, would receive light to moderate intensity rain. “Thunderstorm with light to moderate intensity rain would occur over and adjoining areas of most places of entire Delhi, Panipat, Karnal, Bagpat, Sonipat, Gannaur, Khekra, Gohana, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnor, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Ballabhgarh, Palwal, Noida, Greater Noida, Meerut, Modinagar, Hapur, Gurugram, Manesar, Nuh, Sohana, Sambhal, Chandausi, Gulaoti, Siyana, Bulandshahar, Garhmukteswar, Rewari, Bawal, Narnaul, Khatoli, Amroha, Hastinapur, Moradabad, Chandpur, Alwar during next 2 hours,” it said.

The IMD has forecast heavy rains in Delhi till Thursday. The “axis of monsoon” will remain close to Delhi till Thursday, with moisture being fed by southwesterly winds from the Arabian Sea and southeasterly winds from the Bay of Bengal, Kuldeep Srivastava, of Regional Meteorological Centre in New Delhi said.

The department said Delhi will continue to receive rains till August 25.

Rains over the past week have helped reduce the monsoon deficit in the region. The IMD has forecast normal or surplus rainfall in the city this monsoon. This year, the monsoon arrived late in Delhi on July 24.

According to the Safdarjung Observatory, Delhi has received 139.2 mm of rainfall so far in August, which is about 11 per cent less than the average of 157.1 mm.

There were media reports of a house collapsing due to the rains in Agra.